URBAN AND RURAL CULTURAL LANDSCAPES IN THE FUNCTIONAL URBAN REGION OF BRATISLAVA
STUDY AREA AND METHODOLOGY
The characteristics both of urban and rural cultural landscapes were studied on the example of the NE sector of Bratislava Functional Urban Region (FUR) consisting of eighteen municipalities (including two Bratislava’s city districts and three towns), with population of about 85,000 and an area of 408 km2. The study area is the transitional zone between the Western Carpathian mountain system (Little Carpathians – up to 695 m a.s.l.) and the Western Pannonian basin lowlands (Poduna-jská Lowland 130 m a.s.l.). With an exception of the forested semi-natural landscape in the Little Carpathians, different types of cultural landscape - urban, suburban and rural with various type of human activities like viniculture, agriculture, forestry, tourism, industry, nature and culture heritage protection – prevail in the remaining area. The study area is administratively divided into the city of Bratislava and the Region of Bratislava (Pezinok district). It is one of the most developed parts of the country situated along the developing axe heading from Bratislava towards the north-east. The close neighbourhood of the Capital, with its relatively very high economic and financial potential impacts the economic development in the whole region and “produces” thousands of people with the tendency to move towards the hinterland of Bratislava. This intensive process has a basic effect on spatial organization of the territory.
166 Ján Hanušin, Mikuláš Huba, Vladimír Ira, Peter Podolák
The aim of the paper is to assess the demographic changes, quality of life and environmental qual-ity in order to specify differences between the rural and urban cultural landscapes and classification of the area according to the rural-urban characteristics.
In relationship to the assessment of the reality, different notions and tools have been developed.
For the purpose of this study, three categories applied in the sphere of the sustainable development are used (Huba et al., 2000):
Principles, Criteria,
Indicators (indexes).
The categories are hierarchically aligned from the most general principles over specifying criteria up to individual specific indicators of sustainable development. There are not always sharp limits between the above-mentioned three categories especially the principles and criteria often overlap.
However, generally the principles should be universal while the criteria and indicators are chosen with regard to the particular conditions, the assessed object and the purpose of assessment. Likewise, the hierarchic arrangement from the most general principles to the most specific indicators holds. It means that the chosen indicators and principles should correspond to the adopted principles.
Three principal domains were assessed to establish the urban/rural character for each of the eighteen municipalities:
Demographic Environmental quality Quality of life
In agreement with Hahs and McDonnell (2006) and Toit and Cilliers (2011), for the optimal delimitation of the urban-rural divide, it is appropriate to use comprehensive indicators of different nature, which enhance the objectivity of results. For each principal domain, individual criteria and indicators were adopted to help develop the resulting value from the point of view of the urban/rural character. Demographic and quality of life domains are related only to the permanently inhabited areas. Environmental quality domain is related to the whole cadastral territory. All domains are considered to have equal importance (weight). The cadastral territory of a municipality is the basic unit for the assessment. For each cadastral territory and each principal domain the urban/rural character was rated using the 5-level scale: urban, mostly urban, transitive, mostly rural and rural.
The very final urban/rural character of the cadastral territory was set as an average value of three principal domains values (using the same 5-level scale).
Strengthening of the urban nature in case of larger populations concentrated in urban settlements with prevalence of immigration to the settlements can be expected in terms of the relationship of the demography to the urbanity or rurality of a territory. The relationship of life quality to the urbanity/
rurality is more ambiguous and definitely depends on the choice and weight of individual indicators.
On the one side, many classical measurable indicators suggest the continual proportion between their high value, quality of life and urbanity (availability of domestic appliances, amenities and infrastructure of the settlement, consumption items, accessibility of education and services), while indicators of life quality, some of them not easily quantifiable, with optimum values typical for rural areas such as the quality of environmental components (air, water and soil), noise and light pollution, aesthetic assets of landscape, life style, etc. may exist on the other side. Environmental quality vs.
urbanity/rurality in our interpretation is given by the nature of land cover. As a matter of fact, urban nature of the territory is in continual proportion to the percentage of artificial surface areas.
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RESULTS
DEMOGRAPHIC DOMAIN
The basic feature of the population’s development in the region of interest is its close bond to the settlement development of Bratislava as the biggest agglomeration in Slovakia. While the extensive phase of urbanization in Slovakia (typical for mass immigration to towns and depopulation of the country) peaked during the previous decades, approximately in the second half of the 1990s this trend turned around and the towns began to loose population. Especially the villages in their hinterland became attractive. The villages of the Sub-Carpathian Region are among the most attractive in the country (Moravanská, 2010, Podolák, 2007, Podolák et al., 2011, Slavík and Kurta, 2007, Šveda, 2009).
Tab. 1: Selected characteristics of suburbanization
MUNICIPALITY
TOTAL POPULATION INCREASE 2001 – 2010
(in ‰) *
IMMIGRATION FROM BRATISLAVA
(in %) **
CHANGE IN NUMBER OF NEW FLATS
– 2001-2007 (in % to 2001)
Budmerice 16.1 28.0 9.2
Častá 6.9 29.7 6.0
Doľany 2.1 29.8 8.2
Dubová 7.5 29.7 6.8
Chorvátsky Grob 81.1 59.0 94.8
Limbach 42.4 54.0 23.4
Modra 5.4 28.5 7.4
Pezinok 6.0 31.0 9.7
Píla 20.2 23.5 13.6
Slovenský Grob 14.1 44.8 10.8
Svätý Jur 13.6 51.5 7.2
Šenkvice 10.1 22.3 6.7
Štefanová 0.6 12.0 4.5
Viničné 32.8 24.4 23.1
Vinosady 24.6 18.9 12.2
Vištuk 3.0 33.7 4.0
Rača 2.4 – 5.0
Vajnory 31.3 – 21.7
* The number indicates the average annual total population increase per 1.000 municipality inhabitans in period 2001-2010
** Number indicates the percentage of immigrants from Bratislava from the total number of immigrants to the municipality in period 2001-2008
Since 1970, population loss becomes evident in small and medium-sized municipalities of the region (Štefanová, Dubová, Doľany, Vinosady). Population also decreased in big villages (Častá, Slovenský Grob, Chorvátsky Grob, Šenkvice) and the town of Svätý Jur. On the other side, urban
168 Ján Hanušin, Mikuláš Huba, Vladimír Ira, Peter Podolák
centres of the region (such as Pezinok and Modra) maintained the population increase (which revived in almost all other villages after1991) all over the 1970s. Rača and Vajnory are specific. These two traditionally wine growing villages became administrative parts of Bratislava in 1946 although they conserved the rural character for a long time. In Vajnory it is evident even today with the contribution of the existing spatial divide between the old and the new built-up parts. Construction of big housing estates started in Rača after 1970 and since then the village gradually merged with the neighbouring urban parts of the city. The Slovak National Council adopted a new Act on Bratislava after 1990.
Pursuing this Act, these two former villages became urban districts with their own government, which provides them with certain independence.
The level of overall population change depends on the values of two components. The natural component of the overall increase after 2000 is very low; fewer babies are born than the number of dead. The level of migration balance then determines the overall increase values. It several fold exceeds the natural increase. The villages which most gain by migration are Chorvátsky Grob, Limbach, Viničné, Vinosady a Vajnory; it means the ones where new residential quarters with the highest increase of new dwellings were built after 2000. These villages also boast the highest values of overall population increase (Table 1).
The pronounced suburbanising tendencies in hinterland of the Capital prove (beside other) the fact that the out-migration flows from Bratislava to rural municipalities are several fold more intensive than in-migration. More people move out of Bratislava to all studied municipalities than vice versa. It should also be added that many inhabitants who move out of the city do not change their domicile or they keep their original dwelling. It means that the out-migration rate is in reality even higher than the available data and as the rural municipalities loose considerable amounts proceeding from taxes they try to compensate it by, for instance, an increased real estate tax for the not permanent residents.
QUALITY OF LIFE DOMAIN
Apparently, quality of life is a phenomenon representing the character or the evaluation of the human life itself. The complexity of human life is due to a number of its parts that sometimes overlap and to the different links that exist between them. According to Massam (2002), quality of life consists of a set of components that represent the partial components of human life and are evaluated by means of selected types of indicators.
Amenities and infrastructure are crucial for sustainable development and acceptable quality of life in communities. Experience from the post-war to more recent situation in settlements has repeatedly shown that infrastructure (e.g. local services like schools, shops, public transport, etc.) is needed at any stage of settlement development and the life of communities. Lessons from settlements in Slovakia over the past 50 years have shown that the lack of infrastructure to support residents slows the process of building a locality-based community and can create long-term problems for the social and economic well-being and opportunities of the new development (Ira and Andráško, 2010).
Saturation index of infrastructure in municipalities (58 indicators clustered in ten clusters – trans-port infrastructure, technical infrastructure, financial services, accommodation facilities, shopping facilities, health services, cultural and educational facilities, social services, and sport facilities) was briefly analysed in the studied region. Saturation index of the infrastructure of everyday life (Jarvis, 2005) was calculated from 19 indicators and its values were also analysed from the spatial point of view. The analysis of the saturation index of infrastructure shows spatial differentiation and a significant rural-urban divide. Perception of available amenities and quality of life was assessed through a survey conducted in selected municipalities (two urban and fourteen rural municipalities).
The results of the survey point to greater satisfaction with life conditions in rural municipalities influ-enced by the suburbanization process. The majority of respondents believe that both, infrastructure and overall quality of life in rural municipalities have been developing recently.
ENVIRONMENTAL DOMAIN
Overlapping of natural, rural and urban landscapes and their identification problems are most pronounced in hinterlands of big cities more so if they are situated in the vicinity of landscape units such as mountain ranges, wetlands or a high quality farmland (Huba et al., 2010, Huba et al., 2011).
Bratislava and its FUR is a typical example.
Characteristics of land cover, especially the proportion of artificial surfaces in land cover were used as partial indicators for the delimitation of the divide between the rural and urban environments.
Likewise, on the basis of land cover characteristics a rurality index was compiled from the percent-age of land cover categories defined as rural or urban. These two are characterized by land cover properties regarding the natural or close to natural surfaces. Precisely the high percentage of artificial surfaces (AS) and the low rate of ecological stability are typical for urban environment while the rural environment is characterized by low percentage of AS and a higher level of ecological stability. Values of partial indicators like in other cases were classified into five categories based on Corine Land Cover (CLC) 2000 definitions and data. Artificial surfaces became the eponymous category of CLC, which also covered the urbanized fabric, industrial, commercial and transport areas, mining, dump-ing sites and construction sites along with the artificial, other than farmdump-ing greenery. The highest proportion of AS in the cadastral territory corresponds to the urban districts of Bratislava – Vajnory (34 per cent) and Rača (24 per cent). Regarding the high representation of industrial, warehouse and transport areas, the non-settlement AS prevail in both cases. A specific case is the village Píla with the cadastral territory situated in a narrow densely built-up valley of the local brook where the AS occupy even 76% of total area. Distance from the centre of Bratislava measured to the centre of concerned municipalities was used as the hypothetic reference indicator for the rurality rate. It was found out that in case of the AS there are significant hints to the existence of a negative correlation between the proportion of AS in the area of the cadastral territory and the distance from Bratislava’s centre. Correlation coefficient (-0,64) which is on the bottom limit of correlation reliability for such a small set suggests that the proportion of AS drops with the increasing distance from Bratislava’s centre; in other words the rurality rate measured by this indicator increases.
Natural or seminatural areas, which regarding their great size in some municipalities complicate division of the territory into target categories proved to be foreign elements in the search for differ-ences. This is the reason, why in case of the Bratislava’s FUR such procedures aimed at the delimita-tion of the rural/urban environment rate were chosen, which eliminated natural areas. Individual LC categories were further broken into three basic groups: natural-rural-urban, where forest and seminatural areas (category 3 CLC), wetlands (category 4 CLC) and water bodies (category 5 CLC) were classed with the group natural; group rural covered the agricultural areas (category 2 CLC) and the group urban contained artificial surfaces (category 1 CLC). Areas or portions of natural areas, which are irrelevant in terms of urban/rural environment assessment, were excluded in the following analyses. The value of the rurality index (LCIr - in terms of LC) was obtained by the division of the urban/rural area proportions:
Agricultural areas (category 2 CLC, in % of the cadastre area) LCIr =
Artificial surfaces (category 1 CLC, in % of the cadastre area)
170 Ján Hanušin, Mikuláš Huba, Vladimír Ira, Peter Podolák
The resulting urbanity/rurality values in terms of the environmental quality obtained as the average of two analysed indicators were divided into five categories.
It means that only Bratislava -Vajnory and the small village of Píla (for the above-quoted reasons) appear as urban areas. Bratislava – Rača, Pezinok and Modra are prevailingly urban. Transitive are the municipalities located in the central part of the territory (Slovenský Grob, Limbach, Viničné, Vinosady, Šenkvice). Municipalities grouped in two parts of the territory boast the mostly rural to rural character. Regarding the distance from Bratislava, the larger cluster of such municipalities in the north-eastern part of the studied region is no surprise. However, what does surprise is the status of the rural cadastral territory of the settlements in the close hinterland of Bratislava. Land cover structure is the reason in case of Chorvátsky Grob where almost 90 of the cadastral territory (situated in the Podunajská Lowland) is arable land. Svätý Jur, in spite being a town, possesses a low portion of artificial surfaces and a high rurality index value – the reason why this settlement has been classified among the rural ones.
THE FINAL URBAN/RURAL CHARACTER OF THE BRATISLAVA FUR